Don’t Panic: Twitter Accidentally Reset Too Many Passwords

There was a minor panic this morning over whether Twitter had been hacked.

There is some concern on Twitterand other websites today that accounts are being hacked, as Twitter sent a large number of emails to users that it reset their passwords because their accounts may have been compromised.

Twitter just published a statement today that it “unintentionally reset passwords of a larger number of accounts, beyond those that we believed to have been compromised.”

Basically, Twitter wasn’t hacked. The company routinely resets passwords of accounts it believes are compromised as most large Internet services do, but in this case it accidentally pulled the trigger on resetting too many accounts.

The mistake even caused paranoia in China, where a number of prominent China activists and journalists received notifications from Twitter.

Here is Twitter’s statement:

We’re committed to keeping Twitter a safe and open community. As part of that commitment, in instances when we believe an account may have been compromised, we reset the password and send an email letting the account owner know this has happened along with information about creating a new password. This is a routine part of our processes to protect our users.

In this case, we unintentionally reset passwords of a larger number of accounts, beyond those that we believed to have been compromised. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused.